TWO housing fraudsters have been put before the courts, leading to Dudley Council calling on people to be truthful when applying for local authority housing.

Two former council house tenants have narrowly avoided jail after they received suspended custodial sentences for lying on their applications.

Annet Nemah Umuzia Cox pleaded guilty to failing to disclose her status as a homeowner when applying for council housing,

She provided the false housing application to gain access to a Dudley Council property, which the council made specific adaptations totalling £29,439.70.

The council also paid the rent, worth £2,078.37, and council tax to the value of £399.84, at the property while it was being adapted.

Mrs Cox privately rented out her owned property while living in the council house, which allowed her to pocket £5,240 in rent.

Mrs Cox, whose total fraud came to £37,157.91, received a six months custodial sentence, suspended for 12 months.

In a separate case, earlier reported by the News, a Gambian national joined the council housing waiting list in 2007 by submitting a fraudulent French passport, which would have given her the right of free movement as an EU national and eligibility to social housing.

Yama Jarju, aged 36, was provided with a property in Netherton, with a reduced rent subsidised by Dudley Council, in May 2009. She lived there with her two children and mother, who died in 2012, but a tip off that the passport was fake triggered a local authority investigation, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

Dudley Council believes she saved almost £27,000 by not having to pay the full rent of private accommodation.

Earlier this month, Jarju was given a 10-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months.

Councillor Keiran Casey, cabinet member for housing and residents welfare, said: "We take these issues extremely seriously and are once again showing that we will not tolerate fraud in anyway, ensuring that those who are engaged in such activities are caught and face the full force of the law.

"Our priority is rightly focused upon those who are most deserving and in need of council housing."

Cox is no longer a council tenant and Jarju is facing eviction.